Wednesday, February 11, 2009

the OC couple's wedding first steps

I am OC. Tommee is OC. Therefore, it's not a surprise that we're an OC couple. I was due to leave for the US 2 weeks after we came home from Boracay. I wasn't really sure how long I was going to stay there, so we had to work out our plans, including the wedding preparations.

During those 2 weeks, we talked mostly about our budget and the guest list. At first, we really wanted an intimate wedding (if it was possible, just the 2 of us and witnesses) but it wasn't doable considering how big our families were. Next, we pinpointed which aspects of the wedding we were willing to really spend on. So, we narrowed it down to 3 - the food (of course!), the photography (memories), and the videography (again, memories).

While I still had a lot of free time in California, I began to scout for a photographer and videographer through the internet. This wasn't easy especially when you only their website to base everything on. I am lucky enough to have a very hands-on fiancé. I did all the research and prepared questions for the supplier and he was the one who met up with them and talked "business."

For our photographer, he interviewed a couple of well-known wedding photographers, but somehow, he never felt OK with any of them. One of them was so obnoxious that when Tommee asked him about his style of photography, his answer was "I can't explain it to you, you won't know what I'm talking about, you won't understand"  - WTF, right?!
Anyway, I don't know how I ended up at this photographer's website, but I think it had to do with a special art he does with his photographs. This photographer is Jomel Gregorio and he produces Tintography. According to his website, http://www.jomelgregorio.com, tintography is "a contemporary photographic art where the fusion of digital art and conventional hand painting are aesthetically combined in one beautiful picture." See example here

As for the videographer, I really wanted to get Jason Magbanua - he's considered the leading videographer in the Philippine wedding industry- unfortunately, he was way over our budget. So that was put on hold for a while because I couldn't seem to find one who, at least, had the same style as Jason. 

We decided to hire a wedding coordinator because we were having a destination wedding. As OC as I am, I was being realistic about setting up my wedding outside Metro Manila. Besides, my main reason for getting one was because I wanted everyone to enjoy and not have to worry about doing anything for the wedding. During our scouting of location, only one name was mentioned by every single hotel and resort in Boracay - Amanda Tirol. Apparently, she's the queen of weddings in Boracay, having planned and coordinated her own wedding in Boracay. Since then, she's handled hundreds of weddings there, so we didn't even question it. Tommee met up and interviewed her and told me all about it through SKYPE (which was our main form of communication then). We decided to book her and so far, she's done a good job coordinating with me.

Now, thanks to Amanda, we were able to get a videographer with the product to match Jason Magbanua. These guys (and girl) 
actually apprenticed for Jason Magbanua, and what's great about them is they live near Boracay - they're from Iloilo- and they fit right in our budget. Such a young and talented bunch and I'm so grateful to Amanda for recommending them.






So, the OC part. Tommee and I have excel sheets of almost every aspect of our wedding. These excel files are constantly updated by the both of us. I made my own wedding checklist because I wasn't satisfied with the checklists I got online. I basically consolidated all the good checklists I got and made it my own. This checklist is evolving as I move along my wedding plans. As Tommee says it, "Suyen organizes the shit out of everything." So there.

1 comment:

  1. Hi sis Suyen!

    Stephanie here, I am so happy you found Mayad Studios. I grew up in Iloilo but I am now based in manila. I so love Mayad studios. Have you seen their work on youtube and their website? So beautiful! I am sure they will do a great job on your wedding and even exceed your expectations on the Same Day Editing (SDE). I love them! They are the Jason Magbanua of Iloilo.

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